Month: September 2016

I imagine that across the world people are preparing contingency plans in case of a Trump victory in the American presidential election in November. These plans may originate from the level of individual governments down to individual citizens.

Both myself and a friend of mine are incredibly afraid of what a Trump victory could cause on many different fronts. One of those fronts is the reaction from the global financial markets. I just can’t see investors being extremely confident or even joyful at a Trump White House. It’s my belief that such an outcome would trigger an immediate and disruptive reaction from worldwide markets. As an example, I would look at what happened to the markets in London right after the Brexit results. Even months afterwards, many of the losses have not been regained.

My friend and I are poised to liquidate all our holdings in stocks, mutual funds, and anything that could be subject to volatility in the event of a Trump victory. This is not an easy decision to make. I’m still not sure if I want to go all in on this, especially with any holdings that in the red right now. On the other hand, I do not want to be subject to a wild ride come post-election.

The other thing to consider is how likely is a Trump victory? I trust Nate Silver’s forecasts and currently, Clinton has a greater chance at victory. Does that mean Clinton will win for sure? No way. I imagine if Clinton were to win, the markets would receive an immediate boost, as fears are allayed. Sure I’d want in on that but you know what, I’d be ok if I missed out if that meant a Trump defeat.

If I’m to do this, I have to move quickly or November will sneak up on me without warning.

On Monday the first debate between the U.S. presidential candidates for the 2016 election took place. Normally I watch these things with great interest as it’s amazing political theatre. Some people love watching UFC but I’d go back and watch the Obama and Romney debates any day.

I did not, however, watch any of the debate on Monday live or otherwise. I did not watch because I already knew the outcome of the evening. I knew that Clinton would be prepared and I knew Trump would act like a blustering fool. I knew Trump would say outrageous and untrue things. I knew Clinton would play it safe and let Trump make himself look like an idiot.

Indeed it came to be true. Trump openly admitted and was proud that he paid no taxes. On national television, a presidential candidate admitted he was a tax cheat and by being so, he should be admired for being smart. This is a man who very well might have a hand in making the laws for the United States for four years.

I also knew that despite the consensus that Clinton won the debate there would be many Trump supporters who would say it was an amazing night for Trump and that he clearly won the debate. A no contest they would say. Indeed that was also true. Someone wrote that Trump had the worst performance in a debate in the history of presidential debates. Yet if you were brave enough to search with the hash tag #TrumpWon on Twitter today, you get a whole bowl of sadness and altered realities.

The same thing will happen in the next two debates. It won’t even be worth watching. This whole thing is a complete farce. It is a sad reflection upon the state of the America that a man this unqualified to president is actually so close to the job. This is the stuff that banana republics face, not the most powerful nation on this planet. Yet here we are. In a way, America deserves Trump as president but far too much hangs in the balance for that scenario to happen.

There’s a scheduled power outage in my apartment building tomorrow night, 12am to 4am. The reason for this is that electrical vault for this building is going to be now shared with the new building that’s going up next door. That’s the same building that’s been plaguing the whole area with its pile driving. I’m not sure why the new building couldn’t just have its own vault. I bet it’s because the developer next door is cheap and doesn’t want to build another one. I know the developer is cheap because he built my building and he cut a lot of corners here. Am I publicly saying Mike Degelder is a terrible developer? Hmmmm… maybe?

Anyways, having the power cut off at midnight might not affect some folks but for night owls like me, this is going to be an inconvenience. I’ll probably be up another hour an a half before going to bed. I won’t even be able to play video games! I’ll light some candles and I’ll have to use my phone for the Internet. I’ll most like just doing some reading. Did you know Norm Macdonald has a new book out?

I’m not sure if this is a good thing or bad but the weeks seem to be flying by. Tomorrow is Friday and it feels like it was Sunday just yesterday. While it may seem great that the week isn’t dragging on and another weekend is upon us, there are some possible drawbacks. First, I have a series of deadlines to meet at work over the course of the next several weeks. The fact that time seems to be passing quickly only means I’m also approaching those deadlines quickly. Secondly, a friend also brought up that as the days speed by, you’re also hurtling toward your inevitable death. Ok, so that’s a bit of a morbid way to look at it but my friend is slightly pessimistic in his world views.

On Monday I knew it was a rough morning when I got to work and I went to put my badge up against the reader to get inside the studio. I always clip the reel to one of my belt loops so my badge is at waist level. When I brought the badge holder up, it was empty. Doh!

What the hell happened? I realized I had grabbed an empty badge holder and reel from my kitchen counter. Don’t ask me why I have an empty one sitting right next to my real one in the same place. In my Monday morning daze I must have just grabbed one, clipped it to my pants and left my apartment.

Luckily, someone let me inside and I had to go get a temp badge for the day. Most people who get a temp badge just forgot theirs for the day, which is totally understandable. I didn’t forget. I remembered to bring my badge but instead grabbed an empty holder. That’s like remembering to take your baby to daycare but grabbing an empty baby carrier instead and leaving your kid in the crib at home. I know, I come up with the best analogies.

I knew production was happening on a TV show based on the Archie Comics. Entitled Riverdale, I thought it was going to be a faithful live-action adaptation of the comics that I read as a child.

I’m not sure how I missed it but in May they released a trailer for the show (which is being shot in Vancouver). As you can see above, the show definitely is not following the comics at all. I thought it would be modernized somewhat but still retain the lighter aspects of the comics, like Jughead and his love of burgers. Instead, it looks like a teen version of Twin Peaks or something like that.

One of the empty retails spaces downstairs from my where I live was rented out several weeks ago. In its place arrived a new candy store which opened up last week.

It’s a specialty store for sure but retailers that are related to food or food service do fairly well downstairs. I’m not a big candy person but I decided to check out the new store on Saturday. I was really surprised by their wide selection. Any grocery store can stock candy and chocolate bars but this store had items you normally can’t get. They had stuff imported in from the US and the UK.

While I don’t eat a lot of candy, I do enjoy gummy candies, especially the cola flavoured ones. I ate a ton of Coke bottles when I was a kid. In this particular store, they had imported in several soda related gummies. I chose to buy two bags of Dr. Pepper and grape Crush gummies. They were about $3 a bag, so I was my expectations were high.

On my way back up to my apartment I also stopped off at the dollar store. I was going to get some Coke Zero but I also noticed they had restocked their supply of generic Coke bottle gummy candy. They had these in about two months ago and they were really good. At $1.25 a bag, it was also a good deal.

When I got back home, I had two bags of expensive gummies and one cheap bag. Which would taste better? I tried the Dr. Pepper ones first. I was met with instant disappointment. They didn’t really taste like Dr. Pepper. It didn’t really taste like anything. I then opened up the bag of grape Crush gummies. Again, I discovered disappointment. They didn’t taste like grape Crush at all! It was just a semi-sweet gummy.

I saved the best for last, the dollar store Coke bottles. I knew these would be better and they were. As soon as you bite into them, you get that cola taste. At nearly a third the price, the dollar store stuff came through in the end. It’s not often that generic brand food from the dollar store tastes better than the brand name stuff but in this case, it was true.